The LHCb experiment is dedicated to precision measurements of CP violation and rare decays of B hadrons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva). The initial configuration and expected performance of the detector and associated systems, as established by test beam measurements and simulation studies, is described.

A detailed analysis is presented of the diffractive deep-inelastic scattering process ep → eXY , where Y is a proton or a low mass proton excitation carrying a fraction 1−x I P > 0.95 of the incident proton longitudinal momentum and the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex satisfies |t| < 1 GeV 2 . Using data taken by the H1 experiment, the cross section is measured for photon virtualities in the range 3.5 ≤ Q 2 ≤ 1600 GeV 2 , triple differentially in x I P , Q 2 and β = x/x I P , where x is the Bjorken scaling variable. At low x I P , the data are consistent with a factorisable x I P dependence, which can be described by the exchange of an effective pomeron trajectory with intercept α IP (0) = 1.118 ± 0.008 (exp.) +0.029 −0.010 (model). Diffractive parton distribution functions and their uncertainties are determined from a next-to-leading order DGLAP QCD analysis of the Q 2 and β dependences of the cross section. The resulting gluon distribution carries an integrated fraction of around 70% of the exchanged momentum in the Q 2 range studied. Total and differential cross sections are also measured for the diffractive charged current process e + p →ν e XY and are found to be well described by predictions based on the diffractive parton distributions. The ratio of the diffractive to the inclusive neutral current ep cross sections is studied. Over most of the kinematic range, this ratio shows no significant dependence on Q 2 at fixed x I P and x or on x at fixed Q 2 and β.

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A measurement of charm and beauty dijet photoproduction cross sections at the ep collider HERA is presented. Events are selected with two or more jets of transverse momentum p jet 1(2) t > 11(8) GeV in the central range of pseudo-rapidity −0.9 < η jet 1(2) < 1.3. The fractions of events containing charm and beauty quarks are determined using a method based on the impact parameter, in the transverse plane, of tracks to the primary vertex, as measured by the H1 central vertex detector. Differential dijet cross sections for charm and beauty, and their relative contributions to the flavour inclusive dijet photoproduction cross section, are measured as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading jet, the average pseudo-rapidity of the two jets and the observable x obs γ . Taking into account the theoretical uncertainties, the charm cross sections are consistent with a QCD calculation in next-to-leading order, while the predicted cross sections for beauty production are somewhat lower than the measurement.

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We search for invisible decays of the Υ (1S) meson using a sample of 91.4 × 10 6 Υ (3S) mesons collected at the BABAR/PEP-II B Factory. We select events containing the decay Υ (3S) → π + π − Υ (1S) and search for evidence of an undetectable Υ (1S) decay recoiling against the dipion system. We set an upper limit on the branching fraction B(Υ (1S) → invisible) < 3.0 × 10 −4 at the 90% confidence level.